Students from around the world calculated their class mean and standard deviations for their footprints and posted them on our world map.
Do you see differences across the globe? If so, why do you think those differences exist?
Did you use the calculator to try to reduce your footprint down to the average from a citizen of another country? What changes would you have to make to lower your footprint in this way? Are you going to try and take some of these actions in your daily life?
Student Footprints >
Restaurants and Waste
I work at a Pizza restaurant and when I am always shocked by how much plastic we use! Food is always stored in plastic bags, and every container is double wrapped in plastic, and sometimes wrapped all around. The restaurant I work at is not that large or busy, which makes me only wonder how much plastic large restaurants and chains use. If restaurants spent the money on reusable containers and lids, we could cut down on a ton of waste. It is honestly incredible how much plastic is thrown away each day. These types of issues aren't really thought about because it happens behind closed doors- the amount of waste isn't exactly displayed to the public. Laws need to be passed in order to save the planet and we could definitely use a law to eliminate waste in the restaurant industry.